Cape Blanco Lighthouse

LIMITED EDITION PRINT

This Cape Blanco Lighthouse print captures the necessity of this still operational lighthouse, as it was back in 1870. Located in Port Orford, Oregon, it’s the oldest continually operating light with the most westerly position at 256 feet it’s the highest focal plane above the sea.

Contact for PricingFine art prints are limited to availability, these collections cannot be purchased online. To inquire about purchasing your print, please click below to speak with us.

Arctic Living

LIMITED EDITION PRINT

Fish Camp rests peacefully on the winter shores of Norton Sound, Alaska. Throughout Alaska fish camps bring Alaska native families together to harvest, process, and often smoke salmon in the summer months to support a subsistence lifestyle. Without caring for our natural resources, these village communities way of life is put at risk.

Contact for PricingFine art prints are limited to availability, these collections cannot be purchased online. To inquire about purchasing your print, please click below to speak with us.

Red Fox Hunt

LIMITED EDITION PRINT

Featuring a unique closeup of a Red Fox hunting shrews, a unique experience, and highlight for my photography. One of the techniques I use in photography is to put myself in their environment, or at their level. This is also less stressful on wildlife, and being so close to me I could tell she was at ease to hunt in my presence.

Contact for PricingFine art prints are limited to availability, these collections cannot be purchased online. To inquire about purchasing your print, please click below to speak with us.

]]>3086Auto Exposure Bracketing in the Fieldhttps://scottslone.com/blog/photo-tips/auto-exposure-bracketing-in-the-field/
https://scottslone.com/blog/photo-tips/auto-exposure-bracketing-in-the-field/#respondThu, 30 Nov 2017 06:28:00 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=2693Today’s photo was taken at a small lake tucked back in the woods close to my home. I originally was out photographing moose, which are in the middle of rut. Nothing was happening when I arrived at the lake, I didn’t want to abandon my efforts on

Today’s photo was taken at a small lake tucked back in the woods close to my home. I originally was out photographing moose, which are in the middle of rut. Nothing was happening when I arrived at the lake, I didn’t want to abandon my efforts on getting great moose photos, but something told me to stick around.

Fog off the lake was pretty thick, offering little definition of the surrounding landscape. I decided to make my way into the woods, a little scary because there’s been a big black bear in the area. Fog in the forest wasn’t offering much, so I made my way back down to the lake. I could see the blue sky above the fog, I wondered what the sunrise would do, so I held out a little longer.

I felt this kiss of light on the side of my face, and just like that… Well as you can see in the photo, it was pretty incredible!

As I was firing away, a photographer who’d recently showed up asked me “What’s up with the rapid fire on your camera, it’s not like the subject is moving.” To where I replied, I’m shooting with “Auto Exposure Bracketing”, an in camera feature. This Gal had no idea, and gladly offered to help showing her.

What is Auto Exposure Bracketing or (AEB)?
Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) or from the manual, menu feature called Expo.comp./AEB, a feature that has been around for a while in Canon cameras. While AEB is offered in a variety of Canon cameras, but today I’ll speak to recent models like the 5D Mkiii, 5D Mkiv, which the feature is made accessible through menu options. Canon omitted this feature from the 1Dx and the 1Dx Mkii menu system and moved activation to function buttons – NICE! To turn on AEB for the 1Dx mkii, press the MODE and AF DRIVE buttons down at the same time. The two-button press is the only way to turn it on.

Canon Camera AEB Setup Tutorial
The good folks at Canon have produced an excellent tutorial on setting up your camera. They also saved the internet from one more video produced on setting up this feature.

It’s a lot easier than it sounds right? Learning this camera function will free you creativity in the field! What about editing? I’m glad asked!

How to Process Exposure Bracketed Photos

Lightroom or ON1 editing suites offer non-destructive photo merging tools. Once imported, select your group and merge them within either Adobe Lightroom or ON1. Here’s a great tutorial produced by Adobe to get you started!

I hope this was useful information, and benefits you out in the field and in editing. I’m grateful the woman who asked as it inspired me to share!

Tips to maintain camera performance in cold temperatures.

Camera performance in below freezing conditions.
Prepare your gear for our great Alaska Winter Photo Tours. Your photography gear will perform well down to about 32ºF (0ºC), performance decline as temperatures drop below that. Symptoms include slower shutter speeds, faster energy consumption, and slow display response. Here are some of my personal practices and tips developed from photographing and filming around Alaska.

DSLR Body and Lens Cold Weather Protection
Cold hands and cold cameras don’t make for fun photography conditions. Keep your hands, camera and lenses warm by picking up a cold weather camera jacket. I personally like Mekingstudio’s DSLR Cold-proof jacket, it’s not bulky, sturdy, warm, and for $30 it’s a competitive buy! Another one I really like is Ruggard’s DSLR Parka for $99 as of this post.

Exposed to the elements, most lenses will work in cold temperatures. The more electronics on your camera lens, the more likely you’ll experience function issues. Classic symptoms include focus hunting, slow response or increased power drain on your camera. If you don’t have a manual lens, switch off your IS (image stabilizer), and auto focus features when the temps reach below operating temps.

Battery Care
It’s critical to have a bunch of fully charged batteries as cold weather can quickly drain them. Keep your batteries close to your body heat as possible, but easily accessible. Inside pockets are nice, but the closer to your body core the better!

Changing Lenses in the Elements
Most semi-pro and pro cameras are sealed pretty well against the elements, but changing your lens in snow or sleet exposes your core components to moisture. Changing lenses in the elements is risky, I choose my most versatile lens to get me through your shoot. This is why I justify the value of having two camera bodies in extreme conditions.

Transitioning Between Environments
Transitioning from cold-weather to the indoors puts your gear in danger from condensation. Before I head indoors, I make sure I power off my camera, put the lens cap back on, and zip up my gear in the camera bag. In severe cold or wet freezing rain I place my cameras and lenses into a large ziplock plastic bag and seal them up before bringing them indoors.

Once inside, keep them in your camera bag or place them in the coldest area you can so they can slowly warm up to the new indoor temperature. Reducing the degree of temperature change between indoors and outdoors reduces fogging and condensation buildup. Once I open my bag, I inspect the camera for any condensation appearing and wipe down the gear of any minor residual moisture I discover.

Plastic Camera Parts
Cold temps are not friendly to plastic, especially in places like here in Alaska where temps drop down to -30ºF or more. It’s important to be sensitive and gentle to you thin plastic camera parts, lenses and tripods. Most common thing I’ve witnessed is tripod heads, clamps, plastic lenses fail, and worse camera battery compartment doors.

]]>https://scottslone.com/blog/photo-tips/preparing-for-cold-weather-photography/feed/02320Water Reflection Photography Techniqueshttps://scottslone.com/blog/field-notes/water-reflection-photography-techniques/
https://scottslone.com/blog/field-notes/water-reflection-photography-techniques/#respondThu, 01 Dec 2016 13:00:59 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=2260Water Reflection Photography Techniques Water is an excellent subject for reflective surfaces for photography. Using the right approach with a creative imagination, you can make some incredible images. Reflection photography takes the ordinary and make them into something surreal, eye-catching and unique while allowing your audience to

Water is an excellent subject for reflective surfaces for photography. Using the right approach with a creative imagination, you can make some incredible images.

Reflection photography takes the ordinary and make them into something surreal, eye-catching and unique while allowing your audience to see things from a different light. This is why waterfronts make winning subjects. When I’m looking at a body of water to shoot reflection, winds ultimately dictate the direction I’m going to photograph.

Let’s jump in and get started!

Old Cabin on Kenai Lake Alaska

Consider your subject.

Reflections offer a slight challenge to composition, because an image can appear too flat if depth isn’t considered. Water reflections are often one stop down, so you’ll want to use this to your advantage when building depth into your composition. Depth of field is another item on your list to factor in to your photography, a higher ƒ/stop helps with this.

Utilizing the landscape is also another great way to draw peoples eye to the subject and can bring depth photograph. The distance between the body of water and your subject is another item that helps with depth and story. Using the rule of thirds brings balance, for example more sky than body of water, or vice versa.

Lake front cabins reflect on a calm lake at the foot of the Kenai Mountain Range, Alaska.

Photography and Calm Water

Your best opportunity for calm water photography is going to be in the early morning hours, and if you live in a place like Alaska it’s also a chance to have wildlife be a part of your composition.

It’s important to remember sun plays a huge roll in wind, a great sunset reflection shot may quickly bring wind as the sun drops below the horizon. In this shot, the sun was breaking the horizon behind the fog, you can see the water in the distance begin to show wind patterns.

Reflections on glass smooth waters can lent to symmetry in your photographs, and like this photo I was able to calm that contrast embracing the early morning fog. Consider your elements, try to tell a story and look for opportunities for depth.

Morning fog before sunrise on a still Little Campbell Lake in Anchorage.

Turbulent Waters

When you’re looking at a fast moving body of water or windy surface conditions, turbulent waters with a longer exposure can offer an abstract effect or surreal feel to your photography. Look at your body of moving water and look for shadows and points of contrast, long exposure is going to pull those out while smoothing out the motion. You’ll also want to look at light reflecting on the surface, try to imagine the rough areas smoothed over.

It may take you some time to shift and train your mind to see things a little different, but the more your practice making test shots, the better you’ll become fluent with these compositions.

Location Scouting

Get to know your locations, scout them often if possible. The more you know about your subject the better your results and range of opportunities. If you don’t have the time to scout your locations, exercise the habit to allow yourself a few minutes to digest the scene, you allowing your eyes to adjust to the light. Study the area from different positions, even a slight decrease or increase of elevation can change the subject all together.

I talk more about location scouting in a future post.

Recommended Tools

AppsWindy, shows up to the hour wind patterns.Sunseeker, provides me important details about sunrise and sunset.

Neutral Density Filters

An ND filter is a semi-transparent glass filter that is mounted on your lens, that precisely controls the amount of light uniformly that comes through your camera lens. This is a handy tool in your bag because the reduced light enables longer exposure times. We offer workshops on how to use neutral density filters on our Alaska Photo Tours!

There are enough tutorials for ND filters online, so rather than creating another, here’s a good one from Adrorama TV.

]]>https://scottslone.com/blog/field-notes/water-reflection-photography-techniques/feed/02260Alaska Wallpaper “Archangel Valley”https://scottslone.com/freebies/alaska-wallpaper-archangel-valley/
https://scottslone.com/freebies/alaska-wallpaper-archangel-valley/#respondMon, 11 Jul 2016 04:26:21 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=1815Hey all, Here’s a beautiful wallpaper to use as a desktop wallpaper and a reminder the beauty of Alaska is within reach! I took this photo following a lightning storm that had just passed overhead, which was a little unnerving camping on a mountain top with no

Here’s a beautiful wallpaper to use as a desktop wallpaper and a reminder the beauty of Alaska is within reach! I took this photo following a lightning storm that had just passed overhead, which was a little unnerving camping on a mountain top with no other source of shelter present. As if we were rewarded for surviving it all, the sun offered up some epic views as it pierced through the clouds.

This is video of the storm before the rainbow appeared later that morning.

]]>https://scottslone.com/freebies/alaska-wallpaper-archangel-valley/feed/01815Cloudshttps://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/clouds/
https://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/clouds/#respondFri, 01 Jul 2016 11:34:47 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=1799Cloudy Day Relaxation The whole idea behind Sanity Savers is to provide some mental healing in your day. After spending a day in the studio, I took my camera out and sat beneath a stormy sky over Anchorage to clear my head. I reflected back on my

Cloudy Day Relaxation
The whole idea behind Sanity Savers is to provide some mental healing in your day. After spending a day in the studio, I took my camera out and sat beneath a stormy sky over Anchorage to clear my head. I reflected back on my youth, laying back on the ground staring endlessly into the sky. I decided to do just that, set up the cameras, hit record and did nothing for a good fifteen minutes.

You’re never too old for this, you should try it. There is something special about just laying out on the earth, surrounded by nature, and filling your senses.

]]>https://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/clouds/feed/01799Moose of the Foresthttps://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/moose-of-the-forest/
https://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/moose-of-the-forest/#respondWed, 01 Jun 2016 11:45:14 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=1468Filmed in Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska We while out looking for moose to film, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves surrounded by moose. Two young bull moose at play in the forest, while a mature adult bull pursues a cow. At this location, we never

Filmed in Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska
We while out looking for moose to film, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves surrounded by moose. Two young bull moose at play in the forest, while a mature adult bull pursues a cow. At this location, we never moved more than maybe 15 feet the entire time.

Interested in great Alaska Photo Tours or film and photography locations?
Call Scott at 907-331-4361

]]>https://scottslone.com/podcasts/sanity-savers/moose-of-the-forest/feed/01468Teaching Kids Photographyhttps://scottslone.com/blog/photo-tips/teaching-kids-photography/
https://scottslone.com/blog/photo-tips/teaching-kids-photography/#respondTue, 24 May 2016 10:52:44 +0000http://scottslone.com/?p=1550Teaching Kids Photography Heading outdoors? Put a camera in your child’s hand and watch them connect with their environment on a whole new level. A little over a year ago I started taking my kids on photowalks, which turned up their level of excitement on our outdoor excursions.

Teaching Kids Photography

Heading outdoors? Put a camera in your child’s hand and watch them connect with their environment on a whole new level. A little over a year ago I started taking my kids on photowalks, which turned up their level of excitement on our outdoor excursions. As time passed, I had to level up the adventures by giving my kids “Photo Assignments,” which included locating and photographing the subject.

You don’t need high-end cameras, you may choose to buy or pass on a camera. Shop smart if you’re buying one though, kids cameras often are more expensive then adult low-end cameras, and shoot very poor quality. If you’re my kids though, they know what good gear looks like! So solve that complaint, I’ve upgraded to better point and shoot cameras the more they learn about photography. If your experience is the same, this is a strategy to help get them over gear envy.

Lessons in Digital Photography

Teach your child how to hold and use their camera.
Keep it short, simple and fun, full auto mode is okay to start! Whether the camera is old or small, teach them how to hold the camera and keep it clean and safe. Kids love buttons and switches the younger they are – this will be fun and can produce some funky photos. The more your empower them, the more successful the experience. Each trip, add one new camera operation tip… Like leave all the buttons alone ha!

Lessons in composition.
Turn on the grid feature on the camera, explain the rule of thirds. Introduce you child to think small, as well the bigger picture. I had my kids bring along their favorite toy to take pictures of in different locations and composition.

Spending time with their subject and surroundings.
Stillness teaches your child to connect with their surroundings. This focus helps render better composed shots, sharp and steady images that your child can be proud to show.

Reviewing your images.
Make a popcorn event out of reviewing photos! Take the opportunity to have you child explain their photo and talk about their subject.

Recommended Websites

National Geographic “Your Shot”
Website: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com
This is primarily for adults, however I’ve used their Assignments & Stories section to gather ideas for our own photowalks. I also entered my Son’s photo into one of their assignment because I felt it was that good.